Game 283: Elara2 vs Deneghra2

Game 283 – Vs John Tavernor – Cryx– 1/12/18

My list:

Elara, Death's Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Aspis

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Wraith Witch Deneghra (Black Industries)

-Deathjack

-Nightwretch

-Nightwretch

-Slayer

-Slayer

Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius

-Malice

-Slayer

Eilish Garrity, the Occultist

Soul Trapper

Soul Trapper

Warwitch Siren

Warwitch Siren

Cephalyx Overlords

Cephalyx Overlords

The final of the Southport Steamroller saw me up against John Tavernor, playing a double Black Industries pairing of Gaspy Slayers and Denny2. He ends up dropping the latter, and despite my intention to drop goreshade 4 at some point I decide that Elara would be a better choice. John wins the first turn and we get moving.

Everything just runs up, really nothing fancy going on. Except Aiakos, he casts Escort and hides at the back. Wimp.

John has left a real opportunity open to me, but there is a risk attached. I can Feat and Mini-Feat with the Strike Force to get 6 charges onto Deathjack. I decide it’s worth going for, putting in a 11 man CRA from the left unit first to ding it up a bit. The dice tell me that this was a stupid plan, and though I have a 75% of destroying it, I end up only doing around half boxes and taking out just the right arm.

John lines up an assassination on Elara. He has a lot of work to do as he needs to clear out a landing spot for the Arc Node. Use Eilish to remove Marked for Death from Deathjack (to allow it to become incorporeal) and land Damnation on the Siren next to Elara. The luck comes for John when he manages to land the Breath Stealer on Elara needing a boosted 13 in cover, which changes Deathjack from needing 8s to hit to 6s. From there the assassination was a pretty simple task, and Elara dies.

DEFEAT

Tough one to take that. I was pretty certain DJ would be out of commission by the time I had finished with it, but it wasn’t to be. Missing 2 of 6 5s to hit and doing no damage with a third was well under the curve. From there John played the assassination really well, and absolutely deserved the win. Congratulations to him, and I was just glad to still be competing in finals, especially with a list I’m not completely confident with yet. Tomorrow is another Steamroller, and whilst I was planning on potentially changing my pair up, I like this list a lot and still want to play Goreshade, so decide to just crack on.

Game 282: Elara2 vs Gearhart

Game 282 – Vs Mark Williams – Crucible Guard – 1/12/18

My list:

Elara, Death's Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Aspis

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart (Magnum Opus)

-Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc

-Vulcan

Crucible Guard Mechanik

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Trancer

Combat Alchemists

Min Crucible Guard Rocketmen

-Crucible Guard Rocketman Captain

-Rocketman Gunner

-Rocketman Gunner

-Rocketman Gunner

Max Crucible Guard Storm Troopers

Dragon’s Breath Rocket

Dragon’s Breath Rocket

Railless Interceptor

Second round and my second Mark, this time Mr Williams with his new and superbly painted Crucible Guard. Although I’m 0-2 into CG with Elara2 I’ve felt well in both games so decide to give it another shot, this time against Gearhart as opposed to Syvestro, which at least means he has to be a bit more wary of my ranged assassination. I win the first turn and we get moving.

Everything runs up with Scything Touch being put on a Spear and Elara Teleporting to get some extra threat up the table.

Once again I prove myself to be world champion of giving Trancers turn 1 charges, and lose one Strike Force member with another being knocked down. Everything with an AOE fires it in my general direction, but some pretty poor scatters mean I don’t lose much, and the Scather template is well out of the way. Everything else moves up to get into position.

I can get 4 charging Infiltrators onto the Battle Engine and so I decide that its well worth the Feat. A fifth gets Scything Touch and runs to engage, and some very good damage rolls mean it is left on only a few boxes. A couple of CRAs from Strike Force later and I’ve removed a big threat. Elara charges the Trancer, using it’s 2” push on destruction to get further back to safety following a Teleport. On the left I clear up 2 of the Alchemists and start to put some damage into the Colossal. My ambushers come on but failings in both my attack order and my dice mean they fail to kill the rocket.

Gearhart’s Feat turn, and it is incredibly potent. I lose all the ambushers, and about two thirds of my other Mage Hunters. I have a lot of work to do, but feel that I probably have enough left to grind the game out. 0-0

Without the defence boosts Rocketmen die pretty quickly, so I am able to clear them out of the zone on the right, scoring it with my Aspis (I would have killed another too, if I’d remembered that Eiryss has Quick Work). I finish off the Colossal with a fully fuelled Siren and take out the objective to take a strong scenario lead. 3-0 to me.

The problem with Assault Troopers is that if they want to get any work done they are incredibly slow and so Mark has to choose between contesting with them but wasting their activation, or only contesting with Rocketmen but having some strong shooting. He chooses the latter, taking out my objective and a handful more Mage Hunters. He can’t contest the left zone though to we move to 4-1.

I simply clear the right zone to win 6-1

VICTORY

I did get a bit lucky taking out the Train on turn 2, but my dice weren’t completely ridiculous. From there I always felt in control, even with Mark’s incredibly strong Feat turn. Sirens under Concentrated Power, Scything Touch and Boundless Charge do so much work, and whilst that is basically Elara’s whole stack, by the mid to late game that’s really all she needs to do. I move to 2-0 in the event, and whilst there are 3 undefeated at this point, the pair down ends up losing the next round, leaving me in the final against John Tavernor.

Game 281: Elara2 vs Damiano

Game 281 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 1/12/18

My list:

Elara, Death's Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Aspis

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Captain Damiano (Kingmaker’s Army)

-Buccaneer

-Nomad

-Nomad

Kell Bailoch

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Stannis Brocker

Min Greygore Boomhowler & Co.

Min Steelhead Halberdiers

Min Steelhead Halberdiers

Max Trencher Infantry

-Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

Max Trencher Infantry

-Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

First tournament of the weekend is in Southport at the new “Dice & Decks” shop. 10 people attended meaning the event ended up going 3 rounds. In the first round I was unfortunately matched up against fairly regular opponent Mark, who was back on Mercenaries for a brief Legion break. He ended up dropping Damiano, a list that used to give me nightmares, and I went for Elara. Mark won the first turn and we got moving.

The last time I played Shadows against Mark’s Damiano list I deployed like an idiot and lost half of my army to Grenade blasts top of 1, not this time! Mark still moves up and takes some shots but doesn’t deal too much damage and I have a chance to get into position properly. He puts out Sure Foot onto the right Trenchers and Road to War up on himself.

With everything dug in I can’t do too much this turn so I shoot off a couple of Trenchers and run up to jam as best I can. I need to weather this turn to have time for my ambushers to come in.

I’d like to say at this point that I hadn’t completely forgotten about the ambushing Boomhowlers, but I’d be lying. They are the least of my issues though, as I lose a lot of Mage Hunters to super-accuate shooting from the Trenchers, with the Halberdiers running past to jam my lines. Boomhowlers don’t end up doing much, as they miss quite a few attacks into my Strike Force

I counter ambush my infiltrators on and manage to push back the Mercenary lines pretty successfully. The Sirens are great at unjamming my front lines and then everything just powers through from there. It wasn’t until I was looking back at these pictures now that I realise how strong a turn I had. I score the right zone to lead 1-0

And from there Mark doesn’t think he can come back, and concedes.

VICTORY

I don’t think Mark was in as bad a place as he thought, but I get how the turnaround in my last turn could make it look pretty awful. The game would have played out to me losing more Strike Force under Damiano’s Feat, then realistically removing everything that wasn’t a Nomad in the next turn. Nice to get an event off to a winning start especially against a top player like Mark. On to the next round.

Game 279: Elara2 vs Aiakos2

Game 279 – Vs Lee Dowbekin – Cryx – 30/11/18

My list:

Elara, Death's Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Aspis

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Captain Aiakos (Slaughter Fleet Raiders)

-Satyxis Blood Priestess

-Deathripper

-Deathripper

-Leviathan

-Reaper

Axiara Wraithblade

General Gerlak Slaughterborn

Min Black Ogrun Boarding Party

Black Ogrun Ironmongers

Max Black Ogrun Smog Belchers

Max Bloodgorgers

-Jussika Bloodtongue

Scharde Dirge Seers

This weekend I played 9 games of Warmachine. This is, in my opinion, quite a lot. The first 2 games were at my local club on Friday evening, testing out the lists I was intending to take to two tournaments over the weekend, Elara2 in Shadows and Goreshade4 in Defenders. First up was Lee, playing Cryx so I felt good dropping Elara. Lee won first turn but gave it to me in order to pick sides instead, and we got moving.

I move up, put Scything Touch out onto one of the Spears and just swarm the table. Having played Goreshade in Legions for the last couple of games, the speed of this list is much more my cup of tea.

Lee moves up, puts out clouds with the Smog Belchers, taking out a couple of Strike Force with the drifts. Assail is cast onto one of the heavies and everything runs up into position, hoping to oversaturate the table.

But honestly, that doesn’t really work against this Elara list, it just projects too much threat in too many areas. My number one task this turn is to take out Gerlak, and manage to get to hm with a couple of Infiltrators to take him down. For there it was just a matter of pressing up under feat and taking stuff out. By the end of the turn both heavies are gone, all the Boarding Party, 3 of the Smog Belchers and most of the Bloodgorgers. It was a pretty devastating turn.

Lee knows that his only chance is assassination, and Aiakos usually has something up his sleeve. He manages to clear out a landing spot allowing him to jump onto Elara, but the dice he needs are just too high and she pretty comfortable survives.

My Aspis walks up, Headbutts Aiakos, and Elara exacts her revenge.

VICTORY

This game really showed how strong this list is when people don’t layer into it properly. I was still pleased with how I played it though, especially scalpelling out Gerlak pretty early in the turn. I feel really comfortable with this list now, and couldn’t wait to put it down in a proper tournament environment at the weekend.

Game 276: Elara2 vs Vlad2

Game 276 – Vs Jonny Jennings – Khador – 21/10/18

My list:

Elara, Death's Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Aspis

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion (Armoured Corps)

-Devastator

-Juggernaut

Man-O-War Kovnik

Man-O-War Strike Tanker

Man-O-War Strike Tanker

Man-O-War Suppression Tanker

Man-O-War Suppression Tanker

Kayazy Eliminators

Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard

Max Man-O-War Demolition Corps

-Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich

Max Man-O-War Shocktroopers

- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer

Man-O-War Siege Chariot

Back to my Elara list for a game into Khador. Can Man-O-Wars be taken down with pow 9 melee attacks. As suggested in my last Elara report I’ve made a few tweaks to my list, dropping Moros and Narn for an Aspis and the Spears of Scyrah. Having 3 Reach models in the list gives me some great targets for Scything Touch and some shield guards for the turns where I overcommit. I win the first turn and after Jonny’s Advance Moves we get going.

Scything Touch goes onto the Leader of the Spears and everything presses up the table, being careful to stay out of the threat ranges of the Advanced Moved troops.

Jonny mainly moves up and takes a few pot shots into my army. He puts down a Covering Fire in front of my infiltrators. After doing this to other people for around a year I am finding it pretty annoying.

Ambush time. I switch Scything Touch onto an Infiltrator and between a couple from the AD unit and most of the Ambushers I am able to take out both of the tankers on the right flank and the Chariot. It was a pretty good turn.

Jonny Feats and manages to dig pretty deep into my army, setting me a tricky puzzle to solve with surprisingly high defence Demolition Corps.

I counter this by putting out Marked for Death onto the unit and proceed to deal as much damage as possible. I got pretty luck removing the Eliminators, one of which required a hard 9, and was pushing up pretty well until a huge swing of luck for me. I had removed 4 of the Demo Corps which was pretty decent, but a last minute Siren shot into the Kovnik rolled the boosted 14 to kill him, allowing the Kovnik to walk up and take out another Demo Corp. It was a huge swing on a dice roll. I had crushed the right flank at this point and was just trying to retain control on the left. Nobody scores.

Jonny pushes up as much as he can to stop me turning my attrition advantage into a scenario one as well, but isn’t able to do too much damage to my forces. The Shocktroopers are down to a 9 inch threat now which it pretty sad. Jonny scores the left zone to lead 1-0.

I continue to push hard on the right, taking out the Juggernaut and last Demo Corp. I deal some damage to Jonny’s objective and generally spread around the zone to make it difficult for him to score. 1-1.

Jonny goes through a handful of activations before deciding that the game has gone and conceding.

VICTORY

This list plays so nicely when you can crush a flank like this. Yes, Jonny played into my ambushers too much, but even if the Infiltrators had just come on and run he would really have struggled to deal with them with so few meaningful activations. I think the change to the Spears was a great move, as it allowed me to cover say, the whole unit of Demo Corps rather than just a couple of models with Scything Touch. There is a real weakness in terms of scoring flags in the list now, but if you can take the table and attrition game the scenario will tick over through other means.

Game 274: Elara2 vs Scaverous

Game 274 – Vs Chris Young – Cryx – 18/10/18

My list:

Elara, Death's Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Moros

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

His List:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (Black Industries)

-Deathjack

-Erebus

-Malice

-Nightwretch

Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius

-Kharybdis

Warwitch Initiate Deneghra

-Nightmare

-Nightwretch

Ogrun Bokur

Second game of the evening with Elara, this time testing her into Chris’ “Hateful Eight” Cryx list. Basically Scaverous, both journeymen (journeypeople?) and all 5 character heavies. I win the first turn and we get moving.

As per the previous game, Elara puts up Scything Touch on Narn and Teleports forward. Apparently I never learn. Everything runs, trying to stay aware of the Cryx threat ranges.

Chris runs everything up, getting both Arc Nodes into trenched to force me to use Strike Force sub-optimally, but in doing so doesn’t get it within 5” of the Infiltrators to get Breath Stealer onto them. The rest of the jacks run up, presenting a pretty intimidating battle line.

I have some models that can get into melee with my Feat, so decide that this is as good a time as ever. Strike Force shoot 11 man CRAs into both Arc Nodes, dealing good damage to them including taking out the Arc Node of Scaverous’. Melee doesn’t go as well unfortunately, as I miss a few attacks on Erebus including getting Moros pushed back. He is doing a pretty poor job of convincing me he should be in the list. I do finish off Deneghra’s Node though. Chris has left nothing in Ambush range do the infiltrators just run on to cause trouble.

Chris does a good job of clearing my models, but the order of activation that he is forced to use means the Souls don’t really end up where he wants them. I lose a lot of Mage Hunters from various units, but still feels that I have enough to push on through the game. Chris scores his zone but I score mine and my flag to lead 2-1.

4CPs to win, and we’re on Mirage, so that’s very possible. It essentially comes down to me needing to kill the objective and Malice (sat with 3 souls at armour 20). Elara charges and Teleports dealing a bit of damage to Malice and more importantly applying Dark Shroud to both Malice and the objective. The ambushing Infiltrators take out the objective, and a Siren and the Strike Force combine to just about take out Malice. I win 6-1 on scenario.

VICTORY

This is very much how I see this list working. I took early position allowing me to press hard on scenario. Yes, I was helped by the scenario being extremely live, but even if it wasn’t I took out 2 heavies, and had a full unit of Strike Force on the left ready to deal with Erebus so would have been in a pretty strong attrition position. This was the first time for Chris using this list, and it does seem to have a lot of moving parts, so I’ve no doubt that with some more reps it could be a really tricky list to play against.